Arizona voters rejected a bid by some special interest groups to claim control over 27 million acres of federally managed public lands. Map courtesy Center for Biological Diversity.

Land grab seen as a waste of time and money by many state residents

By Summit Voice

FRISCO — Arizona may have voted for failed Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in a big way, but a ballot initiative aimed at claiming state control of federally managed public lands in the state didn’t get much of a coattail effect.

Proposition 120, criticized by most as a massively expensive land grab, failed at the polls this week, as voters rejected the amendment to the Arizona Constitution that would have declared the state’s sovereign and exclusive authority and jurisdiction over the air, water, public lands, minerals, wildlife and other natural resources within the state’s boundaries.

The land grab would have covered some 27 million acres of public land, including 23 national parks, monuments and recreation areas spanning 3.3 million acres; 90 wilderness areas spanning 4.5 million acres; 10 national wildlife refuges spanning 1.7 million acres; two wild and scenic rivers spanning over 82 river miles; six national forests spanning 11.8 million acres; and 12.1 million acres of lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management, according to an analysis by the Center for Biological Diversity. Continue reading →

Pat yourselves on the back, Coloradans.A WalletHub survey show that residents of the state's three largest cities — Denver, Aurora and Colorado Springs — are harder workers than most of their peers nationally.